


Do You Walk in the Shadow of the Stars

by autisticaizawashouta



Series: Stardance [1]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Space, Arc Reactor Angst, Author Is Sleep Deprived, Blood, Extremis Tony Stark, Fantastic Racism, Gen, Happy Hogan is a Good Bro, Howard Stark's A+ Parenting, Hurt Tony Stark, I have no idea what I'm doing, James "Rhodey" Rhodes is a Good Bro, Jarvis (Iron Man movies) is a Good Bro, Non-Consensual Body Modification, Pepper Potts Is a Good Bro, Space Pirates, Tags May Change, The Author Regrets Nothing, Tony Stark Gets a Hug, Tony Stark Is a Good Bro, Wordcount: 10.000-30.000
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-30
Updated: 2018-04-08
Packaged: 2019-02-24 00:54:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 17,366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13202244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/autisticaizawashouta/pseuds/autisticaizawashouta
Summary: When Central decides you're too dangerous, too much of a loose cannon, there's nothing to be done except wait for them to whisk you off to God-knows-where.Except Tony Stark just survived the Ten Rings, Obadiah trying to kill him, and an arc reactor explosion. Pepper isn't ready to let him go; none of them are.So now they're all on the run from the most powerful government in the known universe, dodging intergalactic terrorist organizations and navigating the dark underworld as four of the most wanted people in the universe.For added fun, Tony's still trying to figure out how to live with the powers the nanobots trying to eat him have left him with.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Sing the Space Electric](https://archiveofourown.org/works/500166) by [icarus_chained](https://archiveofourown.org/users/icarus_chained/pseuds/icarus_chained). 



The absence of Tony’s partner was a vacuous hole in the back of his mind where the connection should be. What sort of tech was he being attacked with that could knock out JARVIS?

A high-pitched tone chiseled its way into his head, into the empty space that shouldn’t be there. It drilled into his very thoughts. How he was still cognitive at all was a miracle.

“Breathe,” a voice behind him said. The hands that gently let his form down were large, warm, and familiar. They had offered comfort to him many, many times in the past.

They were no comfort now.

“Easy, easy,” Obadiah continued, his voice soft, his tone the same tone he had used many, many times in the past, when the man had come to find Tony drunk or drugged and distressed. “You probably haven’t encountered this, have you?” Tony had, while in the hands of the Ten Rings. They tended to collect the nastiest of tech from the farthest corners of the galaxies and then either use them on him, if they weren’t too damaging, or make him do maintenance on them.

(What they didn’t know was how he subtly sabotaged every piece of weaponized tech they put in his hands.)

Obadiah walked around the chair to stand within Tony’s sight. He removed a couple of glowing earbuds from his ears- so that was how he remained unaffected.

“Ah, Tony,” he began, his voice still soft but gaining something slimy to it. “When I ordered the hit on you-” holy fuck,  _ Tony’s Obie _ , he was the one who sold him to the Ten Rings?- “I worried that I was,” he continued, messing around with a bag of something off to the side. A silver device flickered at the edge of Tony’s vision. “Killing the golden goose.” Obadiah leaned over Tony, he towered over Tony’s immobilized form. Obadiah had always loomed. And now, he was pressing the silver device-

He was pressing it to Tony’s chest, to the reactor that now powered his body, that kept the mechanisms within him from taking everything and leaving nothing behind.

“But, you see,” the mechanism clicked onto the reactor and began to whirr. Tony could feel the quick, miniscule vibrations resonating throughout his body. “It was just-” the device snapped down onto the reactor, severing the connection with the outer casing and dragging a grunt from Tony’s throat. “Fate, that you survived then.” Obadiah twisted the device and ever-so-delicately, so gently, so reverently, pulled the reactor from Tony’s chest. The bright white shine of the reactor highlighted Obadiah’s face ever-so-harshly. “You had one, last, golden egg to give.”

Blue eyes focused in on the reactor, filled with so much covetous greed, with so much lust for the power within the small device.

“Do you really think, that just because you have an idea, it belongs to you?” Obadiah’s tone turned dark and mocking as he leaned in, leaving less than a foot of space between their faces. “Your father, he helped give us the Nevien cannon. Now what kind of world would it be today if he was as selfish as you?” Obadiah gave a final pull, disconnecting the reactor completely. Tony gasped. He could feel the sudden absence of its power, the way that he could feel parts of himself start shutting down. A soft click- Obadiah had removed the reactor from his device. He was presenting it, holding it above Tony’s face and continuing to scrutinize it.

“Oh, it’s beautiful.” Obadiah’s voice was barely above a whisper. He smiled, and set his device aside. “Oh, Tony, this is your Ninth Symphony.” He shifted, moving to sit beside Tony as though they were just spending time together there, in a way they had in the past. “It’s a masterpiece.” The arm snaked behind Tony’s head as Obadiah continued to hold the reactor directly in front of Tony’s face. “Look at that. This is your legacy.”

Tony could feel the blood slithering down his neck from his ears.

“A new generation of weapons, with this at its heart.” Stane gently shook the hand holding the reactor for emphasis. “Weapons that will help steer the world, back on course. Put the balance of power in our hands.”

There was a pause.

“The right hands.”

The self-satisfied chuckle Stane let escape made Tony sick. “I wish you could see my prototype.” He was putting the reactor in a case. “It’s not as uh, well, not as conservative as yours. Too bad you had to involve Pepper in this. I would’ve preferred that she lived.”

Obadiah Stane stood up and left, as though he had finished with just another business transaction.

Pepper was in danger, JARVIS was somehow offline or otherwise disabled, and who even knew what Rhodey was up to at the moment. Tony’s limbs were too heavy to move, his heart fluttering in his chest.

Tony would die if he couldn’t get up, and he wasn’t ready to die, especially not if it meant Stane getting away with taking the reactor and using it to wage war on worlds. Especially not if it meant Pepper dying as well.

Somehow, he forced his deadweight limbs to move. Somehow, he managed to stagger over to the elevator beam. If he was in any other room, or anywhere else, he would’ve just been handed his death sentence.

His lab was within reach, and within it, the Mark I chestpiece. Tony could save himself, bring JARVIS back up, and go reclaim the reactor that had just been pulled from his chest.

He stumbled into his lab, and his knees gave out. He hit the floor. He would not be stopping here. He couldn’t let Stane kill Pepper, no matter what. He refused to let her die and he refused to let Stane turn the thing that kept him alive into a killer of worlds.

And so he crawled. One arm forward, palm hitting the cold floor with a slap, and drag. There it was, on top of the table- Pepper’s sentimentality would be saving his life.

Suddenly, he was at the table. When did that happen? It would be just like him to have a dissociative episode while fighting the clock for his life.

The reactor would be in reach. He hauled himself up, he pulled other things close to help him reach higher…

Smooth glass met his fingertips. His fingertips shoved it further. He grasped at it, gasping. His entire body was shaking, his arm trembling trying to fight the effects of the paralyzer and the nanobots within him.

His chin slammed against the table as he slid to the floor. He painstakingly rolled over, a bone-deep exhaustion in every fiber of his being. There would be no more desperate grasps for what would save his life.

A whirr, and Tony looked over.

DUM-E, his beautiful, contrary, little shit bot-child. The bot might act completely incompetent, but he was just as sentient as JARVIS, even if he weren’t as advanced (he didn’t need to be- he didn’t have a direct line to the web the same way that JARVIS, and now Tony, did). DUM-E was holding the glass case, and Tony weakly grabbed it.

“Good boy,” he whispered, and then smashed the glass against the ground.

The Mark I chestpiece didn’t perfectly fit the housing anymore, since it had been refined alongside the Mark II. But it went in, and stayed, and flooded the nanobots and Tony’s system with power.

Fuck, it was crude, but it worked. And Tony still couldn’t move. He was so utterly exhausted, a rock-like heaviness in his limbs. He needed to give the nanobots time to fully reboot, and work on fixing the damage done.

Who could blame him if he drifted a little, and the next thing he knew  _ Rhodey _ was shaking him aware, looking panicked.

“Oh, hey,” he groaned.

“Oh my God, Tony,” Rhodey said, leaning back and exhaling roughly. “Do I need to call for medical help?”

“Nope, I’ll be good,” Tony replied, shimmying until he was upright. “Help me over to the main console.”

“You don’t look like you should be on your feet right now,” Rhodey said, his tone resigned as he helped Tony to his feet. Tony slung his arm around Rhodey’s shoulders, and Rhodey could feel how warm Tony’s temperature was through his sweat-soaked shirt. Rhodey didn’t know it at the moment, but Tony’s temperature was so high because the nanobots within him ran hot, especially working off the inefficient Mark I chestpiece.

The two of them staggered over to the main console. The console was a circular patch of floor about six feet in diameter that was metal where the rest of the workshop’s floor was concrete. The two men made their way to the center of it, and Tony prodded it to life. He was feeling steadier on his feet and took some of his weight off Rhodey. The other man took that as his cue and backed off as the console lit up- first the console under Tony’s feet, and then the brilliant blue holograms.

The nanobots Tony had normally allowed him to interface with his network without having to boot up the console, but with JARVIS down he didn’t want to take the chance of a potential bug in the system, no matter how utterly terrifying his antivirus protocols were.

(Tony had taken on system-ending viruses, and even other hackers before, and won. He didn’t want to do that without his partner backing him up.)

The holograms displayed data: the status of the house, of his networks, his AIs (all of them down, not just JARVIS), and the suit. Apart from his AIs being offline, everything looked fine and untampered-with.

A quick finger-flick, and a holo-keyboard lit into life. His fingers flashed over the keys as he typed in the codes to bring his partner and other AIs back to awareness and run standard reboot diagnostics.

JARVIS was coming back online, and his presence within his space in Tony’s mind was a balm.

{FRIDAY and VISION have already begun writing codes to prevent this from happening again. TADASHI and JOCASTA are running checks on the networks. The nanobots within your system appear to be in significant distress, sir. What happened?}

The tense line of Tony’s shoulders relaxed a fraction. Instead of explaining with words, he let JARVIS access his memories of the encounter with Obadiah. His partner’s rage was a warm presence, but it took Tony by surprise. Normally JARVIS was a cool, calming presence. And all Tony could feel was his partner’s intense need to  **kick Obadiah in the dick** and probably kill him, too, for daring to touch  **his partner, his Tony, his creator and everything** -

Okay, he still had some work to do on the whole “we’re still two separate beings, let’s keep ourselves that way” thing. As much as Tony loved JARVIS, he really didn’t want to stop being himself.

“Hey, Rhodey, I’m about to go do something incredibly dangerous that may or may not involve that project I’m going to involve you in,” Tony said, glancing over at the resigned and unimpressed face of his best friend. “I’ll explain everything after, I promise, just please don’t freak out.”

Rhodey sighed. “I don’t think anything you can do can surprise me anymore.”

“Well, I have one more surprise up my sleeve,” Tony replied, smirking and nudging the code to summon the armor.

Mechanized battle suits had already existed, of course- they were just large, and bulky, and not very maneuverable- and his was just better. It had a powersource that would never need recharging. It was agile, fast, and quite possibly the smallest functional battle suit to ever exist. That didn’t mean he had skimped any on the badass part of it.

Summoning the armor was something entirely different from turning on the console, or communicating with JARVIS. It was on another level entirely. The undersuit flowing over his skin was not unlike feeling silk brushing against his skin, and he knew that his eyes were bright blue and they weren’t the only part of him glowing- certain lines lit up, particularly along where the undersuit flowed out.

“Holy shit,” Rhodey gasped, and Tony grinned at him.

“You like this so far? You’re definitely gonna like what’s next,” he said. And then the armor unfolded from its place within the console and wrapped around him, starting from his feet until the faceplate came down.

“Now,” he said, voice mildly distorted by the suit as the HUD flickered to life within his sight, “I have a dick to kick, you think you could hold the fort here with the baby AIs?”

“Uh, yeah, sure, I got your baby AIs, you go kick a dick,” Rhodey replied, his eyes trained intently on Tony. He was salivating over the armor, Tony could tell.

He kicked the repulsors into action and took off, shooting into the air. Obadiah hopefully hadn’t had a chance to leave the planet, but if he had, well… Tony could follow him.

A subroutine was set to tracking the energy signature of the Mark II chestpiece- and he was still planetside. He was actually… at Stark Industries’ main R&D site? The one where the large reactor was…

A large, brutal version of Tony’s armor was already out and causing mayhem. As crude as it was next to Tony’s suit, it was still smaller, faster, and more maneuverable than any of the battle suits that had come before and could be mobilized against it. However, it was a candle next to Tony’s star. If he was flying with the Mark II chestpiece, he could’ve easily flown into the fight sure of the outcome being a victory.

With the Mark I? It would be a lot closer scrape than Tony and JARVIS were particularly comfortable with.

Stane was in his suit threatening people- Pepper was down there, and so was the Agent that had been taking an interest in Tony, and who knew how many countless civilians.

Tony took offense to that.

A repulsor blast to the head of the suit drew his attention to Tony, who started peppering it with shots to draw him away from the people. It worked- Stane turned his attention to Tony, deeming the unsuited people as insignificant.

Tony lured him away, letting himself aim shots and dodge blows on autopilot while he thought. He could most likely win by taking advantage of Stane’s comparatively rudimentary design. The joints which were most likely not reinforced enough, the exposed connections-  _ did he solve the icing problem? _

Stane took the battle towards one of the main airways people commuted through- even at the time of night it was, the airway was packed with vehicles full of people just trying to go somewhere.

Stane threatened a bus full of people, and so Tony lured him into the air, pushing the repulsors up to their highest setting and blasting straight up with Stane following right behind him. He watched the altimeter tick up, and up, and up, and the power level of the Mark I chestpiece fall. He started cutting the repulsors, letting Stane catch him, and then cut them completely.

“By the way,” he said, “How’d you solve the icing problem?”

“The icing-” Stane asked, and Tony hit the head of his suit and they submitted to freefall.

They landed on the roof of SI, where the arc reactor was, and the Mark I wasn’t strong enoug to keep up repulsor power anymore so he used a little of it to disable Stane’s aiming system before he was flung into the floor and thrown onto the skylight over the reactor. Stane gloated. Tony’s helmet, and one of his gauntlets- they’re both gone, and everything’s starting to blur. His body’s so, so warm from the nanobots trying desperately to repair the damage. Had Stane commented on the blue glow under Tony’s skin, in Tony’s eyes?

Pepper was there- Pepper could help, maybe an overload would take him out with Stane but it would definitely take Stane out-

His thoughts were blurring, but he walked her through overloading it, and when Stane loomed over him, Tony yelled, screamed for her to push the button.

His whole world went white when she did. The last thing he was aware of was JARVIS’s panicked queries.

 

Pepper watched the beam of white light, energy, discharge into the sky. Her heart was pounding in her chest and she could barely breathe.

“Miss Potts,” Agent Coulson said, walking over. There was concern in his normally calm countenance. “If Mr. Stark is alive, we need to get to him now. I have advance notice- I don’t know why, but there is a task force from Central being dispatched to take him out on account of war crimes. I know he has nothing to do with Stane’s manipulation of his company, but if Central’s made up their minds…”

Agent Coulson didn’t need to elaborate. If Central had made a decision, not even the Strategic Homeland, Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division could change their mind or stop them.

Pepper was calling Rhodey and Happy even before they made it to the stairs for the roof.

“For some reason,” she began, “Central’s decided Tony’s a war criminal. We need to get out of Allied space- We’ll be there as soon as we can, Tony probably needs medical attention, oh God, if he’s dead-” Pepper cut herself off, and there was a pause as the two men on the other ends of the line let her words sink in.

“ _ Well, we’ll just make sure they don’t get their hands on his tech _ ,” Rhodey replied. Pepper stayed on the line with them as she came to the rooftop- and saw Tony, laying there, in a dead suit, the arc reactor flickering weakly. Her stomach seemed to drop out of her body as she rushed over. The agent with their fingers on Tony’s neck looked up at her.

“He’s alive,” they said. “He needs medical help, not to go on the run from Central.”

“If he doesn’t go on the run from Central, there will be no medical help for him,” Agent Coulson said. Pepper added another number to her group call.

“FRIDAY, I know you have the last reading of his vitals the suit transmitted to you,” she said. “What do you think?”

“ _ He’d be better off with professional help, but he’ll be okay with what we can provide, _ ” FRIDAY replied.

Pepper looked at Agent Coulson. “Could you help me get him- and his tech- to his home? I’ll try to be in contact after we leave, if it’s safe.”

“You’re going on the run with him?” one of the agents asked, and Pepper glared at them. They cowered.

“Of course,” Agent Coulson replied.

 

It hadn’t been needed before, but of course Tony’s house could convert into a spaceship fit for intergalactic hyperspace travel. He hadn’t necessarily gotten the correct licenses for it, but just because he wasn’t paranoid about all the right people didn’t mean he wasn’t paranoid. He was plenty paranoid when it came to Central. Everyone was paranoid about Central.

Pepper drove into the garage, alone, save for Tony’s unconscious form in the backseat of the SUV. Rhodey and Happy were waiting for her, and they helped her move Tony into the workshop. FRIDAY started scanning and giving orders to the three humans.

“First you gotta get the suit off boss,” she said. “There are manual releases- yeah, there you go, Miss Potts.”

“If we’re going to be living in each other’s space for the foreseeable future, please just call me Pepper,” she said, pulling the release and finding the next one.

“Sure thing, Pepper,” Friday said.

While Pepper and Happy were removing the dead suit, Rhodey was working with VISION and JOCASTA to get the houseship out of the atmosphere. A shudder ran through the house as the conversion began, and Pepper took a moment to glance out the windows as they started ascending.

She was really going on the run, from Central, with her boss, his bodyguard, and his best friend. Well, her brother always told her she needed a little more action and adventure in her life, and what better way that going on the run from the most powerful government in the known universe?

The three conscious humans looked at Earth through the windows just before the AIs pulled them into hyperspace. They were going to miss their little blue planet.

 

Tony woke up on the workshop couch to the gentle thrum of JARVIS in his head. That was good, that was normal.

What wasn’t normal was the scream of hyperspace around them. It was so loud, and Tony couldn’t quite bite back the groan at it.

{I’m sorry sir, I’m doing my best to dampen the effects of hyperspace on you,} JARVIS said, and Tony sent him a nudge of acknowledgement and thanks.

{Yeah, J, you’re doing your best, don’t worry about it too much. Why are we in hyperspace?}

{I believe that Miss Potts, Colonel Rhodes, and Mister Hogan would be better suited to explain,} JARVIS replied.

{Ohhh, that means I gotta use my ears, really J?,} Tony replied, prying his eyes open and taking in the familiar sight of his workshop and the familiar but unwanted view of hyperspace outside the windows.

“Are you actually waking up now?” Rhodey asked, and Tony shifted, painfully, to look at him.

“Yeah,” he managed to say. “Why hyperspace?”

“Central decided you’re a war criminal for what Stane was doing with your company,” Rhodey replied. His words were blunt but his eyes were soft, and Tony closed his eyes and groaned.

“Why is this my life,” he asked, not expecting a reply.

{You are incapable of doing things by halves,} JARVIS replied, and Tony sent him a mental eyeroll as he called up his vitals into his sight. The numbers were concerning-- he’d need to get a Mark III chestpiece up, ASAP-- but not alarming.

“Do you care to explain the blue glowy trick now? You didn’t stop glowing until a couple hours ago,” Rhodey said, walking over and sitting down at the end of the couch, carefully maneuvering Tony’s feet so he didn’t sit on them.

“It was- While I was with the Ten Rings, I, well, I, uh, was injected with this experimental nanobot thing. They weren’t sure I was going to survive otherwise and they wanted me alive, so, well, they decided to use me as a test subject for their pretty little supersoldier experiment. It didn’t work the way they wanted it to, but I got it working a way I could live with when I got back, and, well, that’s my blue glowy trick,” Tony said, letting the words out. Even with Stane’s betrayal so fresh, that was Rhodey he was talking to, one of the people  _ he _ chose. Stane wasn’t someone he had chosen. Rhodey, and Pepper, and Happy, they were all people he had chosen and he trusted them with everything. “I can interface directly with technology and my networks and even the web- and, get this, Rhodey, I literally share a mindspace with JARVIS now, how fucking cool is that, I can literally talk mind-to-mind with my AIs. I’m also sturdier than I used to be, although I need to fix this chestpiece or else the nanobots are going to start eating me, I haven’t fixed them that much yet.”

Rhodey sighed and patted Tony’s shin. “Only you, Tones. First, what do you need to fix that chestpiece? Take care of that, and then we’re going to have a talk. We won’t need to come out of hyper for a while, so hopefully we’re out of Allied space when we do.”

Tony nodded, pulled up the specs for the chestpiece, and sat up. He had some work to do, things to be done and plans to be made by the time they came out of hyper. If he was going to be a war-criminal space pirate, he was damn well going to do it right.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! This is a weird space AU thing. I have no idea what I'm doing and barely any concept of where I'm going with this so, idk, enjoy the ride because who the fuck knows what's gonna happen next because I certainly don't. I'm coming back to my pantser roots. Also most chapters are probably not gonna be this long? idk I have no idea what's going on, send help.  
> Anyways, leave me a comment letting me know what you like, what you think I could improve on, and what you might like to see next/what you think might happen next!  
> With love,  
> Kestrel


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter warnings: References to emotional abuse and fantastic racism

Cool, smooth metal was under his fingers. His left arm was draped over a cool metal body- Butterfingers?- while he leaned against U and Dum-E hovered protectively in front of him. His right hand clutched the blankets that were wrapped around him. He was cushioned in his little next, his bot-children around him and JARVIS’ presence humming in the back of his mind where it should be.

He opened his eyes. His workshop was lit by fluorescent lights- there was no natural light in hyperspace. Pepper was perched on one of his tables, looking down at the sleek silver tablet in her hands.

{How long did I manage to stay out this time, J?} he asked, moving his arm off Butterfingers and rubbing at his temples. The ever-present scream of hyperspace around him was wearing him down- they might need to leave before their stocks required them to do, and if they weren’t out of Allied space by then, that might be a death sentence. Of course, being wanted by Central was an actual death sentence, or at least a vanishing sentence.

{An astonishing six hours, sir,} JARVIS replied. The other AIs nudged at their connections to Tony, and he let them in for a moment so they might stop worrying.

{Amazing. Is hyperspace always like this for you?} Tony asked, cracking some of his joints and standing up. Pepper glanced over at him, smiled, and then looked down at her tablet again.

{Given that this is my first time in hyperspace, I don’t have quite enough data to make a solid conclusion,} JARVIS told him after a couple moments to think. Tony sent a quick burst of acknowledgement before turning his attention to the other person in the room.

“What are you reading?” Tony asked Pepper, walking over to her while stretching his arms and back out.

“I finally have time to catch up on the Descoteaux Saga,” she replied. “I haven’t read the seven latest books in it.”

“Oh, jeez, that series is seriously still going?” he asked, astonished. That series had been on its eleventh book when he was a teenager. “How many books are even in it?”

Pepper sighed.

“Thirty-four,” she replied. “I  _ think _ Miller might be starting to run out of steam, although there are rumours that xir daughter might keep writing it.”

“Wow,” Tony replied, leaning against the table Pepper was sat on. “Anyways, so far the Mark III is functioning even better than the Mark II was. The nanobots seem to be trying to eat me alive a little less quickly, at least.”

“I suppose that’s a good thing,” Pepper replied, her eyes flicking up to glance at him from the corners the way they always did when she was joking or sarcastic.

“A very good thing,” he replied, smiling at her. “I’m not very fond of being eaten alive. Anyways, I’m not in immediate danger of dying- unless we wander into Allied space- and the Mark III is going, so we should probably decide what’s happening next. Jo, if you could get Rhodey and Happy down?”

“Sure thing!” JOCASTA chirped. “At their soonest possible convenience or right now? Because Happy is making a sandwich.”

“He can come down when his sandwich’s done,” Tony replied, huffing a little affectionate laugh.

Rhodey was downstairs first, wearing jeans and a t-shirt he had stolen from Tony. Happy followed a little later, carrying his sandwich on a plate.

“What did you want us for?” Rhodey asked, leaning against the table in between Pepper and Tony while Happy sat down on one of the spinny chairs.

“Well, I’m no longer in imminent danger of dying and the new chestpiece works like a dream, so I figure it’s about time we figure out where we’re going with the whole on-the-run-from-Central thing,” Tony replied, shrugging. He himself was wearing one of Rhodey’s green polos that the other man never seemed to run out of.

“We still have a couple hyper-weeks of stocks left as far as I can tell,” Happy said. “We don’t need to come out of hyper until they start running low. We should get as far as we can.” He took a bite of his sandwich.

“At current consumption rates, your stocks should last for fifteen more hyper-days,” TADASHI informed them.

Tony sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “I’m not sure I’ll last fifteen days in hyperspeed,” he confessed. “It’s Extremis- hyper is a little too… loud.”

The various AIs made noises of agreement, and Pepper’s eyebrows raised.

“Well, at least we know how hyper affects AIs,” she said. “That’s something.”

“Are you calling me an AI?” Tony asked, smiling at her. She smiled back.

“Maybe so.”

“So we go as long as we can in hyper- if we have to leave because our stocks get low or because our more digital members can’t handle the noise anymore, well, it doesn’t make that much of a difference why,” Rhodey said.

“So when we get out of hyper, we should probably find the nearest cross-station,” Pepper continued, holding her chin in her fingers as she looked down at the floor. “Happy, you’ve done a lot of space travel, and Rhodey, you’ve done some, would you be able to figure out how to get to one?”

Happy shrugged and finished swallowing a bite of sandwich. “Maybe, if we’re somewhere I recognize. Most cross-stations should be marked on the maps, or we could try connecting to the web to find them.”

“If they’re looking for us, connecting is dangerous,” Pepper replied, worry in her eyes.

“If I may,” FRIDAY interjected, “the five most advanced AIs, plus their coder who now is just as web-linkable as us,  _ might _ be able to securely traverse the web. Just maybe.”

“JARVIS has years of experience fending off cyberattacks on SI’s servers, and my private servers. VISION still has a lot to learn, but I’m sure with siblings like FRIDAY and JARVIS he’ll be up to speed in no time,” Tony added. “If JARVIS thinks it’s a risk we can take, we can do it.”

“I firmly believe in our combined ability to fend off any cyberattacks, malware, or viruses we come across,” JARVIS said.

“Well that answers that,” Rhodey said, shifting so he could do a little hop to sit in the table. “We’ll still have to be careful at the cross-stations- who knows how many people will be looking for us.”

“Probably everyone in the known universe,” Tony replied facetiously. “We could probably come up with some disguises without too much issue- although pure humans aren’t very common outside Allied space. Although, I’m not really pure human anymore, am I?” Oh, he had actually said that aloud.

“Yeah, you only look it,” Rhodey replied with a small smile. “I’m sure you can pull off hybrid if you can control the blue glowy trick. Even just the eyes.”

“And if you look obviously part nonhuman, no one will guess that you’re Tony Stark,” Pepper added, her eyes lighting up as she caught on. “After all, you’re only one of the most famous pure- ahem,  _ formerly _ \- pure humans in the universe.”

“And I’m sure that such a makeup guru as the renowned Pepper Potts will be able to make the three pure humans look not-so-pure,” Tony replied, grinning at her. “I did still have your collection here that you  _ never took home _ after that Halloween party.”

“Well, I don’t need the full collection for everyday wear,” she replied. “I’ll come up with something for the three of us.”

It would be strange to intentionally appear non-human, or only partially-human. On Earth, being impurely human was something that people tended to frown upon. Not that Tony ever let anyone like that around him for longer than the bare minimum if he absolutely had to let them around him. If they looked down non-humans or partially-humans, they would never see his partners, his AIs, his bot-children as  _ people _ , and that was  _ unacceptable _ .

{I share the sentiment,} JARVIS murmured to him, and Tony started.

{Sorry, was I projecting again?} he asked, heat rising to his cheeks.

{I don’t mind,} JARVIS replied.

 

It was a damn good thing that all four humans were comfortable with each other, and that the house-turned-ship was so damn spacious. If they were strangers, or uncomfortable with each other, they would have had a very unfun time of it.

Pepper and Rhodey and Happy were still worried about their family members left on Earth. Tony was still traumatized. They were still on the run.

A couple nights after their group conversation and Tony’s new realities finally sank in.

He had been away from the Ten Rings for months. He reveled in having Extremis- in being able to communicate so intimately with his AIs and bots, in being able to access the web without a physical point. He had thrown himself into moderating it, making it better able to coexist with him. He had filled his hours with refining his armor, with taking it out and  _ flying _ with it. The new strength, the way cuts or burns could heal in seconds or minutes and leave nothing but faded scars… Those he brushed aside. He didn’t  _ want _ the supersoldier side-effects his new biology- cyberbiology? Technobiology?- came with.

Their conversation, bringing up his recent no-longer-pure-human status?

Tony had lost the  _ one thing _ , superficial though it was, that his father had been  _ proud _ of him for.

So yeah, maybe Rhodey walked into the workshop to see Tony sobbing on the floor, his back against U. Rhodey was confused. What had his best friend breaking down six days into hyper?

He sat down next to Tony, sliding himself into Tony’s space and pulling the smaller man into his arms. Tony let himself be pulled in and nuzzled into Rhodey’s shoulder, still crying. Rhodey just gripped Tony and let him cry- this wasn’t the first time he had held his best friend through the pain, and it probably (sadly) wouldn’t be the last. Tony’s form was warm against his, familiar from years of friendship. His new nightlight status- and the arc reactor in his chest- changed nothing about him in Rhodey’s mind.

He didn’t even have any guesses as to why Tony had been breaking down on his workshop floor. Normally he had some idea, but this?

It could have been a flashback, it could have been a panic attack, it could have been a nightmare or something else.

Tony stopped sobbing as hard- his cries turned to sniffles, and his grip, which normally by this point would be vice-like on Rhodey, was startlingly lax.

“I, I’m really n-not human anymore,” Tony swallowed, “am I?”

Rhodey opened his mouth, and then rethought his next statement. What he said next was  _ important _ .

“You’re still human where it counts,” he finally settled on. “Even now that you’re enhanced by this virus, you, Tony, you’re still one of the most caring, loving people I know.”

“Fuck,” Tony whispered. “Fuck, I wanted to ignore it so badly. The, the strength, the healing- I could handle the interfacing, we were moving that direction anyways, but these parts? These parts of Extremis that make me- make me something, something  _ different _ … I don’t want them, I don’t want to be more than human, I just want to be human. My family-” Tony choked his words off, and it clicked into place for Rhodey.

“Oh, Tones,” he whispered, starting to rock his friend back and forth. “You’re so much more than they could ever have dreamed you would be. You’ve gone so much further, you’re so much better. If they couldn’t see that…”

“It was the one thing about me that wasn’t a failure to my father,” Tony murmured, choking back another cry. “The one thing I did right for him. No matter how I failed, well, at least I was still human. I’m not even that anymore.”

Rhodey sighed and held Tony. “Howard had no idea what he had in you,” he whispered.

 

Tony managed to last thirteen of TADASHI’s predicted fifteen days before the noise of hyperspace became too much to handle. By that point, he had a persistent migraine and more trouble than usual sleeping.

Tony, Pepper, Rhodey, and Happy were in the workshop, which had essentially become their bridge. Tony was curled up on the couch, sunglasses on and recovering, while the others took charge.

“Are we out of Allied space, at least?” Pepper asked. Her arms were crossed and she was giving off a stern air, but the tap of her ring finger and her hard swallows gave away her anxiety.

“Yes, we are,” JARVIS replied. Tony stood up and walked over to the windows- the stars, their positions, were brand-new to him. This was a part of the universe he had never been to, and outside their ship, the vast expanse of space yawned wide open.

As long as they could keep themselves alive, they could go anywhere. They could be anyone, do anything. He had never thought his rich life before this as, well, stifling, but with space stretching endlessly before him…

His heart sped up, and he watched a blue glow slowly start under the skin of his hands.

{It is exciting, isn’t it,} JARVIS whispered.

{Oh, J,} Tony whispered back, {it’s so far beyond exciting.}

This was his,  **their** , chance. Their chance to be something more- the something more that Rhodey had told him he was.

“So, then, where’s the nearest cross-station?” Tony asked, rubbing his glowing hands together and turning away from the windows. He knew that his eyes were glowing, too, without even having to look.

“We’re approximately three days out from the T’kowri trading post known as Ev’karik’n,” VISION replied. “It is one of the smaller cross-stations in the region, although, if I may add, I believe it would be prudent to avoid the larger ones.”

“For now, yeah,” Tony agreed, nodding. “We might be able to visit the larger ones later, after we get better at this.”

“At this?” JOCASTA asked, sounding confused.

Tony nodded. “Yeah, this. You know, the whole space vagabonds thing we’ve got going here.”

“Vagabonds,” Pepper said, the line of her brows broadcasting how unimpressed she was.

“Well, yeah.” Tony shrugged. “We’re on the run from Central, and we’ll probably get in trouble with someone else sooner or later. I’m not exactly one to be satisfied just running from people, and I know that you, especially, are a doer,” he said, gesturing at Pepper.

Pepper smiled and sighed. “Yeah, I guess so.”

“You know what, let’s just visit Ev’karik’n first and then we can go about making big space vagabonds plans,” Rhodey suggested, making placating gestures. His tone was that of someone who was not ready to put up with any crazy yet.

“Ah, Platypus, you know you’re just as excited about this as the rest of us,” Tony replied, grinning at Rhodey and Happy. The latter two men exchanged a look.

“Well, boss, where you go, I follow,” Happy said. “If that means space vagabonds, then space vagabonds it is.”

The four of them eventually dispersed, only to regather later for dinner. They ate at the table on the nights when Pepper insisted, otherwise they generally convened on the couches in the living room. Tony was leaning on the arm of one couch with his feet on Rhodey’s lap while he ate.

“You know, if we got the materials I could probably get an arc reactor going that would power the ship,” he mused. “We wouldn’t need to refuel it.”

“That would be one less stressor,” Rhodey agreed. “We could either remove the tanks after that, or convert them into other storage.”

“Do you know if you’ll be able to find the right materials at Ev’karik’n?” Happy asked. He frowned and took a bite of his food.

Tony paused to think for a moment. “You know what, I’m not sure. I haven’t had much interaction with the T’kowri. The palladium will probably be the most difficult to get our hands on- there’s already quite a bit here, but I’m not sure if it’ll be enough yet and even then I want to make sure we have a large backup stock.”

“We also need to get a feel for the region we’re in,” Pepper interjected, gesturing with her spoon. “I want to have some sort of idea about what sort of situation we’ll be traveling through.”

“The T’kowri are mostly neutral, from what I’ve heard,” Rhodey replied. “They’re also spread out and interspersed with a lot of other peoples.”

“Yeah, that fits everything I know about them,” Tony agreed. “Although strike the mostly neutral part- they hate pure humans with a burning passion. Like pretty much every other reasonable species.”

“How do you know that?” Rhodey asked, frowning. “That’s definitely not common knowledge.”

“It is if you’re not pure human, or if you’re, say, held captive by a mostly non-human organization,” Tony replied, deliberately keeping his tone glib. It didn’t really work- he could still feel the way the members of the Ten Rings would  _ look _ at him, like he was a stain on the universe. And who knows, maybe he was.

JARVIS wasn’t having any of that kind of thinking, and Tony felt a flush of gratefulness at the pulse of love from his partner’s presence.

The other three all paused for a moment. What were they supposed to say to a statement like that?

“Do you think it’ll be safe for us in Ev’karik’n? Even with Pepper’s makeup skills, we’ll still look very human,” Happy asked, the first one to break the quiet.

“Yeah, no, we’ll be fine probably,” Tony replied with a shrug. “If anyone says anything, just be all ‘yeah I hate the Allies too’ and you’ll be fine.”

“Does everyone out here really hate the Allies that much?” Happy asked, and Tony couldn’t quite tell if he was being serious or rhetorical.

“Happy, even the people who are part of the Allies hate being Allies,” Pepper replied.

 

In the three days it took them to get to Ev’karik’n, Tony took care of planning the arc reactor for the ship. Calculating the power output it would need, and then adjusting the specs for it, took maybe a day. The remaining two days were spent working on ways to make it more efficient so it would take up less space on the ship. Pepper spent the time planning their disguises, while Rhodey and Happy tried to get the other two to agree to some sort of game plan.

“We don’t need a plan,” Pepper explained, “because we don’t know what we’re going to find on Ev’karik’n, and inevitably any plan we  _ do _ come up with will shatter the second we leave the ship.”

They had to concede to her after that.

Ev’karik’n was a small but bustling cross-station on an asteroid. There were atmosphere generators around the whole thing, and Tony read the data as it scrolled across his vision.

“Yeah, it looks like we’re fine to breathe the air here,” he said. “It’s a little heavier than Earth’s, more suited for T’kowri and Illyala than us.”

On the rounded, wider end of the asteroid, the actual post of Ev’karik’n glowed. From a distance, it was yellow, but as they got closer they were able to start picking out different colors of light. Tony worked in tandem with VISION and JOCASTA to dock the ship, and they all gathered by the doors. Pepper was taking deep breaths, trying to calm her anxiety.

“Oh, God, what if they ask us for IDs? We only have our Earth and Allied IDs, we should’ve figured out a way to make fakes…” she rambled, and Happy took her hands in his.

“Relax,” he said. “We’re great at improvising. Especially Tony. He never cared about the cards before, why would he now?”

“Hey, I am offended,” Tony replied, crossing his arms and feigning deep offense. Happy chuckled while Pepper and Rhodey rolled their eyes, fond smiles on their faces.

“Anyways, what are we all waiting for?” Tony asked, opening the doors with a nudge of his mind. He could feel JARVIS’ excitement, resonating with his own. A blast of warm, dusty air smelling of people and food and civilization hit their faces, and Tony took a deep breath.

“Oh, wow, I love you all, but it’s so good to get out of here,” Rhodey said, walking down the ramp and onto the metal dock. There were several trading ships nearby that had seen better days, and a ways off a very fancy, shiny ship bearing a stylized sort of fancy flower symbol in emerald green on the outer hull. A group of people was bunched together on the dock, some of them wearing different types of uniform. One of them, a T’kowri, looked over at the four of them just stepping of the ship.

Their white hair fell into their eyes, and they pushed it back behind a pointed ear with one hand while waving with another. Their lower two arms were crossed. Tony hadn’t seen a T’kowri with purple skin before, although he had known they existed- the pair of blue-skinned T’kowri he had met with the Rings never shut up about the uppity purple-skins.getting too proud.

He waved back at the T’kowri. He was wearing one of his short-sleeved hoodies and actively glowing. The other three were all wearing a lot more clothes than he was, which might look strange, but whatever. The makeup Pepper had used was subtly fantastic: Rhodey had a green shine to his cheekbones and forehead, Pepper had little blue stripes, and parts of Happy’s skin was a rough-looking grey.

“Welcome to Ev’karik’n!” the T’kowri greeted, meeting them halfway. “I am Iritr! This must be your first time here. I haven’t seen you before.”

“Yeah, we’re just passing through,” Tony replied. “You can call me T.”

“It is good to meet you, T,” Iritr said, and then turned their copper gaze on the other three. “Who are your companions?”

“I’m Jim,” Rhodey said.

“Pep,” Pepper said.

“And I’m Happy,” Happy finished. Iritr’s expression grew confused.

“I am glad that you are happy?” they said. Tony laughed.

“No, his name is actually Happy,” he replied, and Iritr’s eyes lit up as they got it.

“Oh! I understand! I apologize,” they said, and Happy shrugged.

“It’s no big deal,” he replied.

Iritr’s ears perked up, and then drooped again. “You have Allied accents.”

“We kind of left,” Tony replied.

“Well then you found the right place,” Iritr replied. “We’re several hyper-days out from Allied space. You might want to head towards either Tanak’mir’n or Mar’tavik’n, they’re both further from Allied space and they’re bigger posts.”

“Iritr!” one of the others of the group, another purple-skinned T’kowri closer to pink than Iritr, shouted. “Come tell them about the time you met the Kiret’ke High Priestess!”

“Enjoy Ev’karik’n!” Iritr said, waving at them with both of their left arms and then bounding back over to their group.

“Come on,” Tony said, jerking his head towards the main area of Ev’karik’n. “Let’s go look at the actual post area.”

All four of them had been off Earth before- Rhodey for the Allied Star Force, and Pepper, Rhodey, and Tony for SI business. It was one thing to do business in the well-regulated Allied places. Most Allied cross-stations were clean, orderly, and precise. There were residential areas, yeah, but they were separate from the main station and you almost never went in them.

Ev’karik’n was almost incomprehensibly different from Allied cross-stations. For one thing, the floor wasn’t sterile metal: the floor was dirt and rock. There was the occasional hardy garden, and potted plants were everywhere, along with strings of fairy lights and walls turned into canvases for all sorts of art. Music drifted through the post from an open area with a stage. Five musicians played on stage and a good seven or eight people danced along.

“Wow,” Pepper whispered.

“Yeah,” Tony agreed.

The four of them took a few minutes and stood in that courtyard, listening to the music. Pepper was the first to pull herself back to business.

“We need to get stocked up,” she said.

“I can handle the fuel,” Happy said.

“I’ll take care of food,” Rhodey added. “You two can search for Tony’s shit.”

“I will have you know that I am searching for shit of the highest quality,” Tony replied with a fake-exasperated huff. The four of them split off, and Pepper and Tony browsed along the storefronts until they found a hardware store of sorts. They entered, and the quiet was almost startling compared to the noise outside. It was lit with soft orange light, and several T’kowri and a reptilian Esserakka were working in it. One of the T’kowri, an abnormally large one with dark brown hair and missing a right arm, walked over.

“Is there anything I can help you with?” they asked, eyes scanning Pepper and Tony. Tony, for his part, called up the list of materials he needed in his vision.

“Yeah, we’re looking for some materials and we’re not sure if they’ll have the same names here as we’re used to them having,” he replied, and the T’kowri narrowed their eyes and crossed their upper set of arms.

“Most names should translate,” they said. They were eyeing Tony and Pepper a little more intensely after he had spoken, although there wasn’t any open dislike. It most likely helped that they weren’t wearing anything overtly associated with the Allies.

They spent a while in the hardware store, and managed to find most of what was needed. Palladium, as predicted, was the difficult one.

“I don’t have it,” the T’kowri said with a shrug. “I would try asking some of the pirates, although it’s unlikely that they do. There’s not much of a metal trade through here. You might head to Ellamaiylo or Kiret’kirtor’n; they have a much stronger metal trade.”

“Thank you for your assistance,” Tony replied. “Damn, I forgot to ask- do you accept credits?”

“We’re close enough to the border of Allied space. We do,” the T’kowri replied. “The further you go the more places will use kalats.”

“Thank you,” Tony replied, paying for their materials and leaving. They took their purchases back to the ship and stored them, and then Tony went to find some pirates.

Just like the hardware store, they didn’t have any palladium.

“So,” he said, once they were all gathered in the bridge. “Ellamaiylo and Kiret’kirtor’n are in the same general direction. We’ll probably end up stopping at Tanak’mir’n, and who knows, maybe we’ll get  lucky there.”

“Out of the two, Ellamaiylo may be closer but as far as I can tell it is the more dangerous of the two. Kiret’kirtor’n will take significantly longer to get to, but it is far less likely to have any Allied ships, patrols, or presence of any sort,” VISION said.

“I’m thinking we should play it safe for now,” Rhodey said, his arms crossed and weight shifting as he thought.

“Yeah, I’m with you, Rhodey-bear,” Tony replied. “We really don’t have any idea what we’re doing out here.”

“We definitely won’t be able to trust people to keep being as nice at the people here,” Pepper added. “I was talking with Iritr and their friends while Tony was off talking with the pirates-”

“Pirates,” Rhodey said flatly.

“-and they were saying that this is one of the more peaceful parts of the galaxy. And they definitely agree with VISION: Ellamaiylo’s bad. The Illyala in power in Ellamaiylo and the surrounding cross-stations are cosying up to the Allies. Maybe they’re hoping to become Allies themselves.”

{Hmm,} Tony mused, {Think Ellamaiylo’s worth checking out at some point?}

{Perhaps,} JARVIS replied. {At this point, I do agree that it is too risky.}

{I get that,} Tony replied, and then refocused on the audible conversation happening.

“So we’ll start by heading towards Tanak’mir’n, probably with a stop in Rivak’n to gossip and stretch our legs, and then figure it out for there?” Tony asked, glancing around the group and receiving agreement from the humans. The AIs all whispered their agreement in his head.

 

On Earth, Nick Fury was furious.

“What do you mean you let Tony Stark drop off the face of the Earth!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope it wasn't too slow! It's looking like the chapters for this will be about twice as long as my normal fare so we'll see what happens.  
> Leave a comment letting me know what you thought!  
> With love,  
> Kestrel


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: blood, language, some mild sensory overload, minor character death, minor references to Tony's time with the Ten Rings

Rivak’n was much smaller than Ev’karik’n. Where Ev’karik’n probably had a couple thousand residents, Rivak’n had maybe six hundred on a good day. It had the feel of one of those small towns along the highway, as though it was just a place you stopped at for a moment or two before continuing on.

It was a truck stop town. There was a ship already docked in one of the five bays, and Tony, VISION, and JOCASTA set the ship down in the bay at the complete other end of the yard.

{It’s highly unlikely that anyone driving a spaceship that fancy would run into our ship,} FRIDAY poked into his head to say, and Tony sent her a poke of exasperation back. The only other docked ship was rather small- probably made more for local trips, and while it might stand up to hyper, it probably couldn’t spend two weeks in it.

There was a group of T’kowri near the yard smoking something that filled the air with magenta particles. At a sniff, it didn’t smell like anything familiar, although FRIDAY’s urgent tear into his head told him all he needed to know.

He was acting almost before she could say anything to him. He grabbed Pepper and Rhodey’s arms and trusted Happy to follow as he steered them away despite their protests.

{Okay, yeah, magenta smoke bad for humans, got it,} he sent to FRIDAY, who drew out of his head with a cautious satisfaction.

“Tony, what?” Pepper asked, glaring at him.

“According to FRIDAY, magenta smoke bad,” he replied.

“Wow, I think you almost had a full sentence there,” Rhodey said, nudging Tony’s side with his elbow. Tony released a long-suffering sigh.

“I am more than capable of speaking in full sentences,” he replied.

The four of them walked into the main market area of Rivak’n. There were T’kowri wandering around, buying things. There were families out with their pets and small children busily trying to get under everyone’s feet. Green-skinned Illyala wearing dark, sleek armor stood out amongst the pink and purple-skinned and casually dressed T’kowri, and while it looked like they had left their weapons behind, who know what they had the ability to conceal. The same stylized green flower symbol Tony had seen on the ship in Ev’karik’n was emblazoned on their shoulders.

{I should figure out what that means,} he whispered to JARVIS. Multiple scenarios and ideas for what it could be flashed by in his head, along with potential reactions to them.

{I believe it would be best to proceed with caution,} JARVIS replied, and Tony agreed. If the flower-Illyala were friendly, it wouldn’t matter, and if they were hostile, it would mean everything.

“Hey, you three go on and take care of things, I’ve gotta do something,” he said and slipped his arms out of Pepper and Rhodey’s.

Pepper squinted at him. “Gotta do something?” she asked.

“Yeah, don’t worry, I’ll be careful,” he replied, already starting to head off.

“Your careful normally blows stuff up,” Rhodey remarked, and Tony looked over his shoulder to stick his tongue out at his friend before he slunk off down an alley.

It was simple to disappear, even with how human he looked: he jogged back to the ship, changed clothes, and then walked back into town with a hunch and a makeshift blanket-turned-cloak with the hood up. With his disguise, he managed to sidle up fairly close to the Illyala. Their deft six-fingered hands turned over fruits and typed on holoscreens while they spoke with each other in low, soft tones that he strained to pick up.

Of course Extremis had a fix for that. It felt like someone turned the volume of the world up, slowly and hesitantly at first, and then faster until he could make out every word they said.

The rest of the words of every other person in the street, too. The noises pressing in on his brain were almost too much for him to handle, but something, some instinctive reaction, told him he needed to know what the flower-Illyala were.

“These killika you bought are unripe!” one of them whispered, glaring at the Illyala walking next to them.

“Well, excuse me for not knowing how to pick ripe killika,  _ Lalaitha _ ,” the other one snapped, making sure to keep their voice low.

Tony followed them, doing his best to block out everything but them and ignore the building distress in him. Lalaitha and the one they were berating continued debating about fruit, while the rest of the group made soft comments about what they saw. This included comments which, judging from the body language and tone of voice of the group, were Illyalan memes. They would point at things like trash receptacles and bricks and go “that’s Faitholo” and giggle. Who, or what, the fuck Faitholo was, Tony had no clue, but he appreciated the humor.

Some of the other Illyala appeared to get tired of Lalaitha’s sniping at the bad-at-fruit-selection Illyala, and the apparent leader of the group whipped around.

“Falayallali Lalaitha,” they hissed, “please do stop berating Lothali, you are distressing her.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Lalaitha snapped out. Lothali looked much relieved.

Tony continued following them.

“That weird thing in the cloak has been following us for an awfully long time,” Lothali whispered. “Do you think we should do something?”

The Illyala in front of her shrugged. “I guess? Latheial, you think we should?”

“You and Lothali can handle them,” Latheial replied. They were the apparent leader of the group.

Lothali nodded, and separated from the rest of the group, followed by the other Illyala assigned to the task.

{I do believe you should think about leaving,} JARVIS said, and Tony frowned.

{What if I can get more information out of them somehow? If I lead them off…} He wandered, looking for openings that he could use, some way he could manipulate the situation and come out on top.

The Illyala probably didn’t want to cause a scene, but that was a large probably to lean on. Pepper, Rhodey, and Happy were off getting the ship fueled which meant that they were both out of the way and that there was no backup coming.

They would tell him to play it safe. JARVIS was telling him to play it safe.

History had never favored the cowardly, and say what you would about his character, Tony Stark was no coward.

He led them away from most of the people, listening to the two Illyala whisper back and forth about him. Lothali’s eyes had narrowed with determination, and the two of them weren’t making any more effort to hide that they were following him.

Their body language tensed. Tony figured out their intent a split second before they acted, and he was turning to run as they burst into motion.

They were  _ fast _ . Tony was no slouch for a human, especially not since Extremis, but the Illyala were on another level entirely. Extremis would be lighting him up like a Christmas tree, and they could probably tell that he was glowing, what with the blanket-cloak and all.

He couldn’t outrun them. He had to make another move. Only a split second to decide, and he dropped. Lothali, who had been closer, tripped over his outstretched leg while her partner jumped over them. They skidded to a stop and turned.

Years of self-defense and various martial arts kicked in. He was no secret agent, but he was far from helpless. Lothali was scrambling to her feet, and he grabbed her arm and threw her into the wall of a grey-bricked building. Her partner leapt, and twisted, and Tony ducked just in time to feel the solidly-booted foot brush his hair.

The noncombatants had formed a ring around the fight, watching and fleeing in turns while Tony fought the Illyala.

He grunted when Lothali’s fist met his ribcage. She made to strike again, and he twisted, catching her arm and throwing her over his shoulder and miraculously into her partner. Lothali’s partner was the first on their feet, snarling and sprinting towards Tony. He knew better than to try running- the only way he was getting out of this was by incapacitating them both.

Damn, he seriously needed to get to work on making the armor remotely summonable.

During their enraged run, the partner reached for something in their belt. Tony’s eyes zeroed in on it, and he watched as it lit up with green light and- a fucking sword? How the hell did they manage to fit that much sword in that small of a package? Because it wasn’t all light- sure, its edge glowed with green light and there were seams where he could see the light, but that was definitely  _ metal _ that it was made of.

Okay, time to stop drooling over the sword  _ about to decapitate him _ . He leapt backwards, and the tip of the sword slashed across his chest just above the arc reactor, cutting his shirt and drawing blood. The cut stung, except Extremis was already lighting it up white-blue. The sword-wielder’s expression was  _ priceless _ .

“What the fuck,” they whispered, and Tony pressed his opening, running in while they were distracted. The sword only had one edge, except- suddenly it had two? And Tony had the full force the wielder could manage slamming into his left arm and throwing him to the ground.

His temperature was rising while Extremis worked overtime. He recovered quickly, rolling over and to his feet just as the wielder brought the sword down on the ground where he had landed. Yeah, it definitely only had one edge, so where the hell had the second one come from?

He  _ needed _ that sword. He wasn’t leaving until he had that sword.

He defended, taking cuts to his forearms that healed in moments. Painfully, the large cut on his arm was still healing.

Frustration etched itself in every line on the wielder’s face.

“Why! Won’t! You! Just! Die!” they shouted, punctuating every word with a strike of the sword.

“Character flaw, I’m too stubborn to die,” Tony snapped back. The wielder screamed, and Tony glimpsed his opening-

And it was gone. Lothali slammed back into the battle- more specifically, into Tony’s injured side.

“Shit!” he growled, raising his elbow to defend from another body slam. He was shorter and more compact than the two Illyala- maybe he could use that?

They continued brawling, Tony completely on the defensive against the two more skilled fighters. What they didn’t have, was his enhanced healing and stamina.

Information and statistics flashed in his view.

**Fucking finally** , he and JARVIS thought in tandem. The facts were clear: even baseline humans had more stamina that most Illyala. He just had to play the long game, here.

The fight had been going for several minutes, and- there. Lothali was flagging. Her partner, the more experienced, was still going strong, but if he could get Lothali out of the game-

Holy fuck, shovel,  **they could use that** , the hard polymer of the handle fitting nicely in his gloved hands.

The crack of the shovel hitting Lothali’s face sounded like it hurt. All of his Extremis-enhanced strength in it, and holy fuck, she probably was not getting back up again.  _ Fuck _ .

His bright blue gaze fixed on her- she was groaning, and moving like she was in too much pain to get up. The armor on her neck and the sleek helmet had protected her.

**Not dead, oh she’s not dead thank fuck** .

He was distracted, and the wielder struck him, stabbing him low in his ribcage on the right side. A strangled shriek escaped Tony’s throat, and he couldn’t think through the pain, except he could. It was a different pain from wires shocking his chest, from water in his lungs and hands gripping his hair, holding him under…

The wielder pulled the sword out of him, sending a fresh burst of pain. Extremis was already working on healing it, and he turned, the thick taste of his own blood on his tongue. That was his blood on that blade there, dark and thick.

Lines deepened on the wielder’s face as their lips twisted in a snarl.

“Would you just  _ die _ ,” they snarled and raised their sword.

“My answer’s still no,” Tony gasped, hefting his shovel. “I mean, you could answer some questions I have and I might consider it.”

“You hurt my teammate,” they said.

“Yeah, well, you were kinda trying to hurt me first,” he replied.

“You were following us,” they said.

“I was curious! Admittedly, following you like that was not my finest decision, although it’s not my worst by a long shot,” he replied.

“You have fought and harmed members of the Illfaia Guard,” the wielder snarled, crouching low. “A crime punishable by death.”

“I mean, you’d have to figure out how to kill me first? And, I know, ignorance of the law is no excuse, yadda yadda, but what the fuck is the Illfaia Guard?”

“Us,” the wielder growled, lunging. Tony brought his shovel up, except sadly the blade cut right through the handle which raised the question of how the fuck it hadn’t managed to slice clean through human bone.

Tony was on the defensive again, except the wielder was wearing down, wearing themselves out on vicious attacks and furious shouts that weren’t doing much to Tony. Well, the sword  _ hurt _ , but Tony was healing. Except- he wasn’t healing as fast as he had been?

He had to end it so he could grab that sword and figure out what was up with Extremis.

A child’s terrified cry distracted both combatants. The rest of the dark-armored Illfaians were moving through a crowd that parted before them, fluid and terrified.

Tony whipped what was left of his shovel around, slamming it into the wielder’s elbow with a crunch. They cried out and dropped the sword. Tony grabbed the sword, dropped the shovel, and took off at a dead sprint.

The same crowd that was terrified of the Illfaians parted as easily for him as they did for them. Maybe it wasn’t specifically the Illfaians they were terrified of, or maybe they hated them as much as they were terrified.

Whatever. Tony didn’t care. He was just focused on getting the fuck out.

{JARVIS! Are the others on the ship!} he screamed into the mindspace. He was aware he didn’t need to scream at JARVIS but he was mildly stressed and not feeling like regulating his inner voice.

{No, they are not!} JARVIS sounded equally panicked.

Great. No quick escape on the ship, and he couldn’t possibly lead the Illfaians to his  family friends.

And so he turned, centered his weight, and held up the sword. There were five Illfaians total. Lothali was down. Her partner was out. That left three: Lalaitha, Latheial, and the shortest one.

Latheial was the biggest threat, and between the other two, the shortest one was probably more dangerous given that they were visibly older than Lalaitha. Of course, his conclusions could be completely wrong but he’d just go with whatever happened and adjust from there.

Lalaitha and the short one attacked him first, their swords already out- Lalaitha fought right-handed and single-edged, while the short one was left-handed with the sword in double-edged mode.

At least this time he could take most of the blows on his pilfered sword instead of on his forearms. Said forearms stung and burned from the blows he had taken there, and Extremis was still working on healing them all.

He couldn’t take every blow on his sword- it was three against one, and he had to do something to turn the tide. Of course, had he still been a baseline human, he would already be dead.

Lalaitha was the first to leave an opening that the other two couldn’t cover- they drew their sword back too far, left their chest too open, and Tony lunged, slamming the point of his sword into their chestplace and throwing them back several feet. They dropped to their knees, winded, and Tony turned to catch the blow from the short one on his blade while the blow from Latheial landed on his shoulder.

He let his right hand release the sword so his shoulder would have time for Extremis to heal it. With the sword in his left hand, he pivoted and then rolled to put some space between him and the Illfaians. He turned and parried Latheial’s blow, knocking the other blade aside and then he placed a snap kick solidly in the taller person’s knee. It cracked, and Tony danced back away from the short one’s blow. The dodge also took him out of reach of Latheial, which could only be a good thing.

He had been wrong: Latheial wasn’t the most dangerous, the short one was. They were fast, relentless, and highly skilled. It was all Tony could do to hold onto the sword- he wasn’t about to let his shiny new piece of tech go, especially since it was saving him a good amount of pain.

The blows he took on the sword jarred his arms, aggravating the injury on his shoulder until it exploded into blinding pain and his arm wouldn’t do what he told it to anymore. The knuckles on his left hand were bone-white from holding onto the hilt.

“Ifothilo said you couldn’t be killed,” the short one hissed as Tony’s vision faded back in. “Let’s see if she was telling the truth.”

Tony dropped to the ground and rolled to avoid the next blow. He was so hot. If anyone touched him, he would feel dangerously feverish to them- Extremis was working overtime on him. His movements sent pain spiking through his injured arm.

He managed to dodge or block the next few blows, until the short one’s straight-bladed sword turning into a  _ fucking scimitar _ and their style changed almost completely.

“What the fuck,” Tony gasped out, the next couple blows shrieking off his blade as he blocked them. The short one grinned, placing a couple of swift blows on Tony’s blade before jack-knifing in midair and slamming their blade into Tony’s right arm.

**They screamed.**

JARVIS could feel the pain, only it was a distant thing. He could only watch as Tony fought against a foe he most likely could not beat.

That was  _ unacceptable _ . The armor couldn’t work without Tony in it. Tony was currently fighting a member of the Illfaian guard, minutes away from the ship if he could even outrun them.

Tony reached out for the frantic yet cool feeling of JARVIS in his headspace.

His grip shifted on the sword. The Illfaian’s voice was hissing above him- he couldn’t register the words, but he knew that gloating tone.

The Ten Rings had spoken to him in that tone.

Tony had  _ burned _ the Ten Rings.

The short one’s blue eyes widened in surprise as Tony lunged, shoving all his strength and body weight behind the blow. The tip of his sword found the exact weak spot he was aiming for, and with a crack and a squelching sound, it drove through the weak point and into the abdomen of the Illyala. He braced a foot on the short one’s leg and pulled his sword out, letting them fall to the ground while grasping at their wound.

Tony staggered to his feet. Ifothilo, the one who had stabbed him first, was on her feet and glaring at him. She had retrieved Lothali’s sword and held it in her off-hand.

Tony met her eyes. Her grey irises burned with rage. Her injured arm held to her side, she charged.

Both of them were fighting one-armed, tired, hurt. It was obvious that Ifothilo hadn’t trained as much with her off-hand as she should have. Tony only needed a few moments to disarm her again, and he held both swords in his left hand as he kicked her in the stomach.

“Stay down this time,” he muttered as he turned and ran for his ship, his injured arm tucked to his chest.

How had the fight not drawn Pepper, Rhodey, and Happy to it?

{JARVIS, any idea where the others are?}

{They have just fueled the ship and are currently boarding it. I am advising them to please not leave the ship again while VISION and JOCASTA ready for take-off. They are… concerned.}

{I would be too,} Tony muttered back. His head was starting to pound and he felt like he had a fever. Of course, as hot as Extremis had him running, that wasn’t surprising.

The impact of his feet on the ground jarred his shoulder with every step, and his breaths were short pants.

Finally,  _ finally _ , he made it in the door of the ship. It locked behind him, and he felt the ship starting to lift off under VISION and JOCASTA’s command.

He took his time making his way up to his workshop/the bridge. He had to figure out someway to make Extremis more efficient- it was still steadily working on his many injuries, although with a specific concentration on his arm.

Both swords were still in his left hand, blades out and glowing.

{J, first thing we need to do is scan them for trackers,} he whispered. {Then sleep. Are Vis and Jo gonna take us into hyper? I feel like they should.}

{Yes, I believe that would be wise. I am informing them as to their instructions right now.}

{Tell Pep and them?} Tony asked, and he felt JARVIS’s reassurance across the bond.

{I am doing so, yes,} he replied.

Tony eventually stumbled into the bridge. Pepper, Happy, and Rhodey had been standing near the console, worry in the posture and tones of voices.

That worry only escalated when they laid eyes on Tony.

“Oh my god, Tony, what happened?” Pepper asked, her voice distraught as she rushed over. She hadn’t even washed the makeup off yet.

“Saw some shiny new toys. Had to retrieve them,” he replied. “Hey, hold off on the reunion hugs, gotta make sure there aren’t any trackers in these.”

“Why did you need to retrieve someone’s swords?” Rhodey asked, walking over to Tony’s side and following him as he took the swords to a place where JARVIS could scan them.

“They’re shapeshifting swords,” Tony replied, like that was all that was really needed to explain them. And in a way, it was all that was.

The moment JARVIS announced them clear of trackers, Tony staggered over to the couch.

“Okay, VISION and JOCASTA are putting us in hyperspace, and I’m gonna sleep for a week.”

Rhodey laid a hand on Tony’s uninjured shoulder, and then his eyebrows drew together.

“Tony, you feel like you’re running a super-high fever,” he said, and Tony nodded.

“Yeah, Extremis is a little stressed. No big deal, I’ll just sleep it off,” he replied. Rhodey frowned.

“You should be sleeping in an actual bed,” he murmured, and Tony leaned into his touch.

“I don’t think I’d make it all the way to my room,” he replied, and Rhodey huffed.

“This is far from the first time I have carried your ass to bed,” he said, affection written in his wry smile. Tony smiled tiredly back up at him, and let Rhodey pick him up.

Pepper and Happy followed them for the first little bit, peering over Rhodey’s shoulder with concerned eyes. They did that until he softly convinced them that he would be fine, and that he could take care of Tony.

Tony, at that point, was drifting. Everything seemed further away than it should. Rhodey was a rock-solid presence, warm and steady and reassuring.

His room was kept dim as they entered, the yellow-tinted lights only coming up a little bit. Enough for Rhodey to see, but not enough to pull Tony back to alertness. His own blue glow helped illuminate the room, and thankfully the nasty slice on his upper arm was already mostly healed. The shoulder, well, that was another story. He still couldn’t move his arm well, and every time he tried doing something with his shoulder the injury burned with pain. Rhodey set him in the bed so that he was leaning against the headboard.

“Do I need to clean this and take care of it?” Rhodey asked, pointing at the shoulder injury.

“Extremis should be fine on its own,” Tony replied, his voice slurring.

“Alright, well, this shirt is already trashed all to hell so I’ll cut it off to save you the pain. You think you can get those gloves off on your own?” Rhodey moved to get the scissors, while Tony pouted and pulled his right glove off. He threw the glove at Rhodey, missing the other man, but it got his attention in the form of a deadpan stare.

“I’m not three,” Tony said, pulling his left glove off with his teeth.

Rhodey snorted. “Thank God for that- I bet you’d be unmanageable if you were.”

Tony’s huff was bitter. “Oh, I was managed pretty well.”

Rhodey chose to ignore that statement and the can of worms that came with it. He grabbed the scissors from their drawer and walked back over to Tony.

At least the brown shirt wasn’t one of his favorites. Once it was cut, it came off easy, and then Tony used Rhodey to balance himself while he pulled his pants off and changed into his sweats. Rhodey did end up cleaning and bandaging the shoulder wound, and others, if only so Tony could wear his sweatshirt without getting bloodstains on it.

They were still settling down when FRIDAY took them into hyper. Tony let out a soft cry as the all-encompassing sensation of hyper pressed into his head.

{Sorry, boss,} she whispered over the link. {I tried to wait until you were asleep but you were taking too long.}

{No worries, Fri,} he whispered back.

Tony wanted to sleep, he needed sleep, but with hyper screaming around him in his already pounding head it was far from likely that sleep would be had. And soon enough, even Rhodey’s soft voice was too loud for his hearing that Extremis had decided to sharpen. His hearing was so sensitive now. Hyper was thankfully not a physical noise, or else he might be curled in a ball in the closet.

Rhodey made motions like he would be leaving, but Tony reached out with his left hand and snagged Rhodey’s wrist. His tug was weak, but enough to get the point across.

It was far from the first time the two of them had shared a bed, and Rhodey had some comfy clothes tucked away in a drawer for specifically that situation. It was practiced motions with which he retrieved them and changed into them, and eventually slipped into bed. Tony snuggled into his chest, and Rhodey wrapped his arms around the smaller form of his best friend. He was breathtakingly careful not to jostle the injuries.

Tony didn’t fall asleep, but he drifted, right there in his best friend’s arms. With Rhodey wrapped around him, he could almost believe that nothing in the world could get to him.

Of course, once Tony was healed and operating at 100% again he would get the kind of dressing-down only Rhodey and Pepper combined could give. For the moment, though, everything was calm.

“You’re like fucking handwarmers, you’re so hot,” Rhodey muttered. Tony chuckled, adjusted his position, and let himself drift again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading! This entire chapter somehow managed to flow quite completely last night while my roommates were partying and I couldn't sleep. they set off the god damn fire alarm at 11:30, though. like, thanks, guys, you do that again im gonna murder you. also, their excuse was ridiculous, who cooks chicken at eleven thirty at night?? (not my roommates)  
> anyways, here this is. i have no idea when this turned into a hurt!tony fic, but i'm not complaining.  
> also, just to warn you ahead of time, this thing looks like it's trying to turn itself into a full-blown god damn space epic so yeah. assuming i don't flake out like i always seem to do you have lots of space shenanigans to look forward to.  
> leave a comment and tell me what you though!  
> with love,  
> Kestrel


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Illfaia are a problem.  
> Chapter warnings: PTSD, nightmares, mentions of oppressive governments, drowning/suffocating, discussion of breasts, foul language/cussing

True to form, the second they were out of hyper, Pepper and Rhodey cornered him on the bridge.

“So,” Pepper began, her arms crossed and one eyebrow raised. “What happened on Rivak’n?” Rhodey lurked just past her shoulder, dark eyes serious.

Tony took a breath and opened his mouth to speak, then paused.

“Well,” he said. “I didn’t mean to get in a fight. I probably could’ve done more to avoid it, but at least I came out of that fight with more information than I went into it with.”

Rhodey sighed. “How did the fight even start?”  
“I was a little too curious about the Illyala in the armor for their taste. I guess I wasn’t being as subtle as I thought I was,” Tony replied with a shrug. He had been a little busy dealing with Extremis deciding to sharpen his hearing- which was still as sharp as it had been while he was following the Illfaians.

“Did you at least learn something?” Rhodey asked. Pepper glared at him, and he shrugged. “It’s not an ideal thing, and I hate seeing him hurt, but he does have his blue glowy trick and we both know he’s far from helpless.” It went unspoken that throwing himself into the thick of it head-first was a classic Tony move.

“Didn’t I already tell you that I came out of it with more information than I had going in? They’re members of the Illfaia Guard, and apparently hurting one of them is a crime punishable by death. I must admit, I am intrigued.” To be honest, Tony was so far beyond intrigued. JARVIS and TADASHI were already scanning the web for information on the Illfaia- and so far, they hadn’t come up with much. That was concerning, to say the least. Having to do footwork again, so soon after his last screw-up? A good idea that was not.

“Okay, so, a highly respected group of warriors who are also highly skilled,” Rhodey commented.

“You couldn’t have figured this out before you got stabbed by them?” Pepper asked, her tone sharp. It was softened by the worry in her eyes.

“I got that figured out while being stabbed by them,” he replied. “And they were respected, I guess, in more of a terrified respect kind of way.” Terrified respect… Tony knew, very intimately, how it felt to be the one receiving the terrified respect. Especially once that terror and respect was stripped and the object of it brought low. Of course, not even the Ten Rings could keep the Merchant of Death from being a feared title throughout the universe.

  


They laid low for the next few weeks, only stopping when they absolutely needed to. Anytime he saw the dark silver of the Illfaia Guard’s armor, phantom pain shot through Tony’s body. It felt like they were everywhere- the emerald flower painted on ships, on armor, on crates.

Of course, where there were governments, there were anti-fascists. Brilliant red x’s painted over emerald flowers decorated buildings and posters were pasted on walls declaring in a plethora of languages that the Illfaia would not be welcomed there.

The first time he saw one of the posters, he asked a nearby Esserakka to translate it for him then and there.

“Oh,” they said, blinking. “Yes, it says ‘Death to the Dread Illfaia’. And you’re right, that is a web address.”

“Thank you,” he replied. JARVIS was already on that website.

{I should have found it sooner,} he said.

Tony nudged Extremis, and the site displayed within the vision of his right eye. {No wonder you didn’t. They never mention the Illfaia by name.}

{Still…} JARVIS trailed off, and Tony sent him a mental shrug.

{It’s no big deal. We adapt and learn,} he replied. JARVIS fell silent after that.

In the long days that they spent in space, Tony spent a lot of time with the swords. He left one of them alone, just in case, while he dug into the other.

What he managed to pull out of that sword could completely change the course of the overcrowding issues on Earth, and out here these people were using it in _weaponry_.

“Of course that’s always how it fucking goes,” Tony growled, glaring down at the innocuous little tube of liquid. JARVIS had run the scans-- what had he said? Oh yes.

He had said: “I do not currently have access to the correct equipment, or data, to identify the contents of the tube. For all we know, it could vaporize this ship upon contact to oxygen.”

“So, this is where we’re at, and correct me if I’m wrong: we have no idea what the fuck is in that tube. We have no extra palladium. We have no idea how bad the Illfaia actually are. For all we know they could be just like the Earth government.”

“Oh, as though that’s such a great government,” FRIDAY replied, and Tony rolled his eyes.

“Save me your sass, Fri, you know what I’m talking about.” FRIDAY’s quiet sounded disgruntled, if you were to take his expert opinion into observation. “For all we know those Guard members got pictures of my face, so now I’ll be wanted by two large governments who hate my guts.”

“You’re already hated the universe over,” FRIDAY pointed out, and Tony sighed.

“Yes, thank you FRIDAY, how could I ever forget,” he grumbled, rolling his eyes for good measure. He picked up a screwdriver and rolled it between his fingers. The chair he was slumped in was comfortable, and he stared at the tool, eyes sweeping over its different colors. His chest ached.

 

That night, he dreamed about the Ten Rings again.

Sometimes they were warm and rough, sometimes they were cool and smooth. But the hands on his bare shoulders and wrapped in his hair were always there. Sometimes they were rough and the fingers tipped with claws. The claws would dig into his skin as they held his upper arms. He still had scars from them.

Sometimes, the hands felt human.

Sometimes they let him breathe. Searing pain as they dragged his head back by the hair, as they held his back arched in an uncomfortable position, but he could breathe. They might make him bleed, but as long as he could breathe…

The nights he couldn’t breathe were the worst.

He woke that night, drenched in sweat and choking for air, trying to breathe through water. The arc glowed blue in his chest. He slapped at his shoulders, trying to shove away hands that weren’t there. Pain and blue light flared in his knee as he scrambled off the bed, blind with panic.

JARVIS did his best, but it was so incredibly difficult to avoid getting pulled into the terror.

Tony came back to himself, curled up in a corner with a blanket gripped deathly tight in his hands. A soft blue light danced beneath his skin- Extremis was aggravated, burning within him for something, anything to fight.

The demons in his head weren’t something Extremis could fight.

His skin was sticky, gummy. He wanted more than anything to take a shower and yet he had never wanted anything less.

At least he didn’t have to be alone in his head. JARVIS’s presence was there, in the back of his head, cool and calm and clear. He reached out to that presence there.

He spent a few minutes letting JARVIS’s smooth voice in his head calm him down. Still jittery and on edge but much more present, Tony stood up and took a deep breath. His room was dark. JARVIS, acting on Tony’s barely-there thought, started bringing the lights up. A few moments in the light helped chase out some of the remaining dark thoughts, and feeling a little more grounded, Tony left his room and headed for one of the areas that the four humans on the ship tended to gravitate to.

The living room/kitchen/dining room space was large and open-concept, and lit warmly by lamps. Pepper had very carefully picked out the lighting so it wouldn’t be too harsh, and Tony had very happily agreed because while fluorescent lighting was good for the workshop, it wasn’t so good in the normal living spaces.

Tony wasn’t the only one up and about in the living space. Happy was also up, sitting on one of the couches and reading a book- one of the few physical books Tony had. It had to have been one of Pepper or Rhodey’s purchases, because Tony didn’t buy physical books.

“You’re up early,” Tony remarked, flopping himself down on one of the other couches.

“I could say the same thing to you,” Happy replied.

“Last I knew, you actually had healthy sleeping habits, as opposed to us three workaholics you’ve been sharing your space with the last few weeks,” Tony replied, leaning back against the armrest.

Happy looked up from his book. “You must be rubbing off on me, then.”

Happy didn’t comment on how bad Tony looked. He didn’t comment on the way Tony’s hands were still shaking. He didn’t comment on how pale Tony was. He was good like that.

The two of them sat together in the quiet, Happy reading his book and Tony connected to the web and flicking mindlessly through memes and funny videos. Space vines were some of the most hilarious things ever to have existed.

{Never underestimate the power of just existing together,} JARVIS said eventually. {I am constantly amazed by how just simply being around other people can make everything so much better.}

{Yeah,} Tony replied, reaching out to that space in his mind JARVIS occupied. {Yeah.} JARVIS reached back. They couldn’t physically occupy the same space the way Tony and Happy could, but they were directly connected, mentally and emotionally, in a way that was hard to replicate in fleshspace.

That was how Pepper and Rhodey found them in what could ostensibly be counted as morning. Pepper walked in first, and she stopped and raised an eyebrow.

“How long have the two of you been up?” she asked, making her way over to the kitchen area.

“Couple hours,” Happy replied. Pepper was pouring herself a cup of coffee, using one of the “I am the Boss” mugs that Tony had gotten her as a gag gift that she kept using.

She walked over to the couches and sat down, gripping her mug in both hands. “Well, at least you’re making it sound like Tony actually slept last night.”

“I’m not that bad!” Tony protested, then paused. “Am I?”

“You are that bad,” FRIDAY said, and JOCASTA added her agreement. Tony huffed and crossed his arms.

Rhodey eventually walked in, wearing a bathrobe and only one slipper.

“Where did your other slipper go?” Pepper asked. Her coffee was sitting on the side table and she had her tablet in her hands open to some of the regional news sites.

“I don’t know. I think Dum-E might’ve eaten it,” Rhodey replied.

“Dum-E doesn’t eat slippers,” Tony replied. “If you really think one of the bots did, it was probably U. They’ve hoarded shoes before.”

“Tony, why does your bot hoard shoes,” Rhodey asked.

Tony shrugged. “I don’t know. Why does Dum-E love the fire extinguisher? Why does Butterfingers hide all my torx screwdrivers? They’re all huge trolls, that’s why.”

Pepper sighed. “Only you would code trolling robots.”

“They learned from the best,” Tony replied, grinning at her. “You can blame Rhodey for their troll tendencies.”

“I think we can blame the both of you,” Happy said, finally putting his book down. He glared in Rhodey’s direction, at the cup of coffee in the taller man’s hands. “I am surrounded by coffee addicts. None of you have eaten breakfast.”

“Coffee before breakfast,” Tony replied, accepting the cup of coffee Rhodey handed him. “Thank you, honey-bear.”

“You’re welcome,” Rhodey replied, taking a sip from his own cup.

Happy stood up. “If none of you are even going to get cereal I suppose it’s up to me to make breakfast.”

“You pretty much are the designated cook at this point,” Rhodey pointed out. “Since none of us can cook for shit.”

“Hey! I can cook!” Tony protested.

Rhodey shot him a look. “Yeah, toast.”

“I can make pancakes too,” Tony replied.

Rhodey just snorted. “Right.”

“I don’t know how the two of you survived college together,” Happy said, shaking his head.

  


They continued skirting the edge of Illfaia-governed lands. They were playing on the edge of the blade- there were numerous Illfaia Guardspeople everywhere they stopped, and Tony overheard some of them talking about the human-who-was-not-human that had attacked Illothlan Latheial’s team and killed one of their team members.

They kept their heads down and tried to hunt down the palladium they needed and not make too many waves.

“You know, for some reason I thought it might be easier to find palladium out of Alliance space, but apparently not,” Tony remarked as they approached a cross-station. This was a longer-standing one, and parts of it had been terraformed to make it a more permanent residence. There were fields and a small grove of trees and even a small lake.

“Well, it’s really not something that your everyday person needs to get their hands on,” FRIDAY replied, and Tony rolled his eyes. Data scrolled into his vision: the cross-station they were approaching was named Kaka N’tack’n, and was an independently governed station. Its permanent residents governed themselves, which was quite the accomplishment for a cross-station.

They entered Kaka N’tack’n space, and an alert popped up on one of the main holo-screens.

“We don’t require identification, but when you pay your docking fee, please leave a name and method of contact,” Pepper read. Her arms were crossed and her eyes narrowed as she contemplated the information. “Should we just tell them to contact JARVIS?”

“I believe that would be best,” JARVIS agreed.

They docked between some ships they were beginning to be able to recognize as pirate ships, or, in more respectable terminology, trader ships. Calling them trader ships didn’t make them any less pirate ships, but it was the better thing to do- especially around people who hunted pirates, law enforcement or bounty hunters or otherwise.

One of the pirate ships was a standard T’kowri design, with the two prongs carrying cannons sweeping out from the front of the ship. It was gunmetal grey with a rust red emblem on the side.

“That logo there looks kind of like some crossed swords with flames,” Tony said, and Pepper tilted her head.

“It kind of does,” she agreed.

“According to information on the web, that’s the symbol of a pirate coalition that calls themselves the Blazing Blade Battalion,” VISION said.

Tony chuckled. “They sure like their alliteration.”

“That’s the first time I’ve seen a Nassiana ship up close,” Rhodey interjected, gesturing to the other ship. Tony had seen designs and graphics of Nassiana ships before, and the one they were docking next to was blatantly Nassiana. It was long and sleek and dyed a ruddy grey. Like how they T’kowri ship had two prongs in the front, the Nassiana ship had two protrusions that swept back from the front, like wings.

“It sure is something,” Tony agreed, mostly focused on docking their ship successfully.

Once they were docked and outside, he took a few moments to ogle it. There were several Nassiana standing in a loose clump outside it. The sharp squawks and occasional croons of their language drifted reached Tony’s ears easily. Every single one of the avian-like people were shirtless, displaying large muscled chests with tattoos and the patterned feathers on their backs. Most of them had their wings folded up, but several were lounging, showing off their 30-foot wingspans, the occasional dagger or sword held casually in a hand.

“I am so jealous,” Rhodey muttered.

“Yeah,” Tony agreed, although he already had his own method of flight, the jerk.

“You know we can hear you,” one of the lounging Nassiana shouted. Their voice in the common tongue was harsh and rasping.

“Stop fucking with them, Koz, you know everyone’s jealous of the wings,” another one replied, and Koz rolled their eyes.

“I can still give them shit for it,” they replied. “I mean, look at them! No feathers! Wearing shirts!”

“I hear that half of the mammalian species have tits which are apparently things they need to cover up,” another Nassiana replied. “Is this true? Do the ones of you with tits have to cover them up?”

“Tsak! You can’t just ask mammals that!” a Nassiana with mostly black feathers and dark skin chided. Tsak, one with reddish skin and feathers, huffed.

“Well?” they said.

“It’s considered the socially respectable thing to do,” Pepper replied, the quirk of her lips belying her vague amusement.

“Well fuck respectability!” Tsak said, raising their fists above their head. Their wings moved too, raising and half-opening. Pepper laughed, while several of the Nassiana sighed and hid their faces.

“I have a question,” Tony said. “You look like you might know the answer.”

The dark-skinned Nassiana crossed their arms. “Ask away,” they said.

“We’re looking for a specific rare metal,” Tony began. “Are you familiar with palladium?”

“Hey, Tsokeer, we sold some of that to the rich lizard peep in the Yvikonian System,” Koz said, and the dark-skinned Nassiana rolled their eyes.

“Yes, Koz, we did, thank you, Koz.” They turned their attention back to Tony. “Your best bet would be Kiret’kirtor’n, or if you’re feeling adventurous, you’d be guaranteed to find some in the Tyralasia System.”

“Could you give us more information about our options?” Pepper asked, and Tsokeer’s eyes narrowed.

“Sure,” they replied. “At a cost.”

Tony’s chest squeezed with anxiety. “What sort of cost?” he asked.

“Well,” Tsokeer said, their tongue darting out and over their lips, pausing to accentuate their long canines. “You talk like Allied. You look very, very Human. What are you doing on Kaka N’tack’n? Are you an advance guard? Have the Allies gotten tired of conquering their outer edge, are they moving towards us now? Are you here to colonize us?”

“Well, those are loaded questions,” Tony replied, raising his eyebrows. He paused for a moment. “Let’s just say we ran afoul of Central. We’re looking for palladium, it’s just us, no advance guard, and as long as nothing’s changed in the months we’ve been out here, the Allies haven’t started caring about who they’re conquering. And no, no colonizing on our parts.”

“So...” Tsokeer paused for several long moments to think, visibly taking their time. “You are running from the Allies?”

The four Humans looked at each other and sighed.

“In short, yes,” Pepper replied. The group of Nassiana looked at each other and spoke some phrases in their language.

“What is it like, living under Central?” one of them with blue-grey feathers and light skin asked. Their eyes were bright and they appeared genuinely curious.

The four Humans shared a look again. How did you tell someone what it was like, to have to watch what you said, always in fear that some shadowy agent would steal you away when no one but them were looking? The exploitation, the carelessness of the ruling few? Even Tony hadn’t been immune to it, and he had been rich enough to almost be one of the ruling class. If it hadn’t been for his years in college… he might’ve been.

“Well,” Rhodey eventually said. “You can’t say the wrong thing, or the government will vanish you. The government is very good at vanishing people. Rest assured, the people living under Central hate Central as much as everyone else does.”

“The only people who don’t hate Central are Central,” Happy summarized.

“So,” Tony said, clapping his hands together. “Kiret’kirtor’n and Tyralasia.”

“Kiret’kirtor’n has been politically messy for the past sixty years,” Tsokeer said. “It was originally governed by K’vankrit, until Lalanillia, the precursor to the Illfaia, butted in and destabilized things, so it’s part Illfaia, part K’vankrit, and mostly organized crime.”

“Several of the largest crime families have headquarters on Kiret’kirtor’n,” Tsak added.

“And the Tyralasia System is in a similar situation: the Illfaia, K’vankrit, some Allies, and a couple other groups are all in the middle of racing to mine it out for resources. It’s not widely reported on, but Black Star and similar sites run stories and interviews on it,” Tsokeer said.

“So probably Kiret’kirtor’n would be our better option,” Pepper said, chin in her hand as she thought.

Tsokeer sighed. “Well, if you can go that long, your best bet would be to go around the Tyralasia System entirely and trade for it on Dunara.”

A quick mental nudge, and maps and information was scrolling across Tony’s vision.

“That’s several hyper-months away,” he said. “If we stay in hyper the entire time.”

“Do we have that kind of time?” Pepper asked, and Tony was about to reply when the top airlock of the Nassiana ship opened and someone launched out of it and perched on the top of the ship. They screeched something, and Tsokeer screeched back.

“Do you have a quarrel with the Illfaia?” Tsokeer asked, their golden eyes meeting Tony’s gaze. “Because they’re coming.”

“Well, shit,” Tony said conversationally.

“Wait,” Koz said as the person on top of the ship said a few more things. Tony reached out to the AIs.

{Do you catch any Illfaia?} he asked.

{There are some signals that could be cloaked ships,} JOCASTA replied.

{If they all are, we’re very fucked,} FRIDAY added. {There’s a lot of them, big ones.}

Everyone on the docking area jumped as sirens blared. They all slapped their hands over their ears, with several of the Nassiana curling up.

“Their sirens are fucking useless if they incapacitate us!” Tsokeer snarled.

{Guys?} Tony asked.

{Kaka N’tack’n communication channels say that the coming Illfaia fleet could potentially be a war fleet,} VISION said.

{It is doubtful that they are here for us,} JARVIS added. {It is probable that they are here to take Kaka N’tack’n for themselves.}

Another Nassiana flew over from within the city and spoke to Tsokeer.

“They’re saying it’s likely a war fleet,” Tsak told them.

“We will be staying to help defend Kaka N’tack’n,” Tsokeer said. “It is your decision if you will do the same.”

“Guys?” Tony asked, looking at Pepper, Happy, and Rhodey. Their faces told him all he needed to know.

“Any other situation, and you know I would, Tones,” Rhodey said. “But at the moment, we don’t have the firepower to take on a war fleet of _any_ kind.”

Tony nodded, his heart sinking. His suit was a work of art, and good for many, many things, but he would just be flat outgunned in the middle of a full-fledged battle. And their ship completely lacked cannons of any kind (which he should probably fix).

“Be safe,” Tsokeer said, dipping their head briefly. “May the winds rise warm underneath you.”

“Take care,” Pepper replied. Tsokeer and their crew took off for the top airlock on their ship while Tony, Pepper, Rhodey, and Happy ran for their ship. They weren’t the only ones: the crews of several smaller ships were running to their own.

Everything within him screamed at the wrongness of leaving while a battle for control over the destinies of tens of thousands of people loomed. They had successfully escaped Central for months. And now, there was another government they had to run from, else they be hurt, taken, killed.

Was that going to be his reality for the rest of his life? The thoughts spun in Tony’s head as they ran onto their ship and he worked with JOCASTA and VISION to take off. Would they be running from one government after another, darting from shadow to shadow?

Eventually, it would crush them.

Tony squared his shoulders and grit his teeth. He watched Kaka N’tack’n grow smaller from the rear cameras, watched the Illfaia fleet appear, watched a mix of Kaka N’tack’ni ships and pirate ships take off and face them.

He watched the battle break out as they left.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh man do i love these bird people. you probably haven't seen the last of them.  
> sorry about the wait, i kinda dropped out of the marvel fandom and then someone commented on the last chapter and i was all "lol i enjoyed writing this, i should keep going" so here you are.  
> and just a little out-of-story exposition: the Nassiana, and other avian species, and really the vast majority of non-mammalian species, don't see gender at all the same way that mammalian species do unless they're conditioned to/assimilate to a mammalian species. So like, the gender binary? completely alien to most of them.  
> anyways, leave a kudos if you enjoyed it, and if you want to, leave me a comment letting me know what you think! i love to interact with readers!  
> with love,  
> Kestrel  
> (also, the Kaka N'tack'ni in the last paragraph is intentional, like how America becomes American, Russia becomes Russian, etc, Kaka N'tack'n becomes Kaka N'tack'ni, Rivak'n becomes Rivak'ni, etc)


End file.
